Emerging carrier to offer smartphone service with data and unlimited SMS for free

Internet service provider FreedomPop on Wednesday announced a new mobile service that looks to disrupt the industry. The company, which offers a variety of “freemium” services such as broadband Internet and 4G hotspots, will give users 500MB of 4G data, unlimited texting and 200 anytime minutes for free. FreedomPop customers will also be able to take advantage of unlimited calling to one another for no extra charge. The company is promising no monthly fees, no hidden charges and perhaps best of all, no having to deal with wireless carriers. FreedomPop claims the service is the first to utilizes all-data devices running VoIP over cellular networks. The company plans to launch its free service later this summer on “several popular Android phones.” FreedomPop’s press release follows below.

“This is not only disruptive, but game-changing,” said Jonathan Chaplin from Newstreet, an investment firm focused on the telecom industry. “This move completely marginalizes the voice network by leveraging VoIP over cellular and is extremely threatening to already declining voice margins.”

The FreedomPop service will be available on several popular Android phones later this summer and will be the first-ever all-data devices running 100 percent VoIP over cellular networks.

“The quality of over-the-top VoIP services is now at a stage where we can deliver the major mobile services completely free to consumers. FreedomPop is changing the mobile market for good with the sole intent of bringing better value to the consumer,” said Stephen Stokols, FreedomPop’s CEO and co-founder. “FreedomPop’s mission is to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, convenient and essential communication services. With this launch, we’ve just taken a very big step towards delivering on this promise.”

With gross margins of over 50 percent on its ‘freemium’ products and services, led by outstanding consumer demand and high growth rates, FreedomPop has demonstrated the commercial viability of its model of delivering 4G wireless to the mass market.

FreedomPop is looking to officially launch the service and phones later this summer, but interested users can sign up for early access now at FreedomPop.com/phone.